The Path of the Heart
by Soaring-Far
Summary: What happens when Cloud Strife realizes that he has feelings for Sephiroth, an amnesia victim? Certainly not an easy journey. Rated T for romantic moments.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, guys, Soaring here and I want to welcome you to my new Final Fantasy VII FanFic. In this, Cloud Strife and Sephiroth is the main pairing (I may not even have any others, I'm not sure yet) though, there won't be lemons or anything close, I'm just not a smutty writer (sorry). I'm rating the story T for romance moments, though the non-lemon people out there don't have to worry. I'm going to try to upload a new chapter every Thursday at least, with the summer now here that shouldn't be too hard. **

Cloud Strife's petite form of five feet and seven inches walked slowly down the deserted street, breathing in the cool night air, shockingly blue eyes shining. His bright blonde spikes seemed to almost defy gravity. The soft thuds his heavy boots made against the cracked concrete echoed off the crumbling walls of buildings. The tall light post's cast an eerie yellow glow across the street, elongating his shadow.

He had to escape, even for only a little while. The house was loud; the kids played games and ran around, while the adults, apart from Wutai heiress, sat upstairs and discussed the last battle. Yuffie Kisaragi was shouting and jumping around like a little child, asking far too many, repetitive questions to him. Her dark brown, short hair was restrained slightly by her long headband, which flowed wildly behind her as she moved.

Cloud could see that her actions were beginning to affect Vincent Valentine as well, but he could drown her antics out better than Cloud could. His deep red eyes would flash with an unknown emotion when ever Yuffie came close or spoke loudly, which was almost all the time. He pulled his chin back and held it closer to his chest, hiding most of his face from view with the large collar of his red coat.

Tifa Lockhart could tell that Cloud was getting annoyed, so she distracted Yuffie long enough for Cloud to slip away into the dark, night air. She looked after him with almost sad, rich brown eyes, pushing her long, black hair out of her face.

Cloud sighed to himself as he tried to remember what had even occurred in the last few moments of their most recent battle, curling in on himself slightly. He could only remember snippets of information. Kadaj falling, grasping a black, rectangular box tightly, Sephiroth suddenly appeared out of a dark cloud. He and Sephiroth fought. He kept taunting Cloud with his intoxicatingly deep voice, wanting a real challenge. Cloud had suddenly found the strength to defeat Sephiroth after remembering his friends, summoning several swords to do so.

From a dark cloud in the sky, fell a mortally wounded Kadaj, who collapsed into Cloud's arms, and eventually returned to the Life Stream. Moments later, a bullet ripped through his body, a mortal wound inflicted by a fatally wounded Yazoo; but before Cloud collapsed, he could have sworn that he saw something fall from the sky off to his right, falling between several half crumbled buildings.

When he regained consciousness, he was in water, healed fully, surrounded by people and children, all of whom were glad to see that he was alright. The only thing he could think about, though, was what had fallen. All he had seen was a quick flash of silver, but it could have been anything, that was what he had to keep telling himself so that he wouldn't return to the location where he saw it fall.

Cloud irritably pushed a gloved hand through his spiky, blonde hair. He froze a moment later, hand still on the back of his head, when he noticed his surroundings.

He was just a dozen yards or so from the buildings where the last battle had taken place. He slowly dropped his hand as he looked up at the building. He had walked much further than he had planned without even noticing.

The final street lamp was several yards behind him, so its faint, yellow cast barely reached him, but managed to throw a large, albeit faint, shadow of his own body on the twisted, metal structures ahead. The glow barely managed to light the first few feet of the structure, let alone its vast interior and the other buildings surrounding it. It was almost pitch black, seeing how the sky was covered in a thick mass of dark clouds; it would start raining soon, Cloud could feel it in the air already.

As he gazed into the darkness, the more curious and worried he became. He didn't really even know what to think about whatever had fallen; it was more than likely a random piece of debris, but he couldn't hold back a feeling that it might have been something else. What else it could have been, he hadn't a clue, but he wanted, needed, to find out.

Cloud walked forward cautiously, boots sending up little puffs of dust with each step. It was much dirtier here than it was near the house because of the half-standing skyscrapers. He carefully stepped around and over large chunks of concrete with steel rebar protruding at odd angles.

The further away from the final light source he got, the more his eyes adjusted to the dark environment. He was able to pick up his pace a little as he became more confident and was able to easily navigate his way back to the building where he was shot.

Cloud rolled his shoulders and neck before he crouched slightly. He took a deep breath and then leapt straight up in the air, easily reaching over ten feet before landing lightly on a horizontal, steel bar. He pushed off that one just as effortlessly, soaring to the next bar. He continued like that, picking up speed as he became more assured that it was a smart thing he was doing, looking into something that he found suspicious, following his gut instinct.

He easily reached the top of the extremely tall building in less than one minute. The wind was stronger up there, tousling his hair and blowing his thin knit shirt more snuggly against his body. Cloud strode forward, skirting around the large dome to get to the other side of the roof.

The moon had just managed to peek through the heavy cloud cover as he arrived at the correct location. He stood over a pool of blood, most likely his own, that was already darkened and was becoming a rusted brown color. Blue eyes slowly turned up to the sky, remembering the dark, foreboding cloud that he had last seen Sephiroth in.

He shook his head in attempt to clear the gloomy thoughts from his mind before he stepped over to the edge of the building and looked down in the general trajectory path that the falling object had taken. He couldn't make out anything in particular from this height and in this amount of darkness; the only way he could make sure was to physically go down there.

Cloud took a half step back, not really wanting to go down there, but drew in a calming breath before he stepped off the building. He caught a beam with his hand, about twenty feet down, which he used to slow his decent; he let go and fell to the next rod, which he landed on with his feet. He continued the action dropping from beam to beam until he was only about forty feet off the ground.

The steel beam that he dropped onto was heavily damaged and was really only still in the position it was in because it was balanced perfectly. His weight slamming into the end of the metal sent it cascading over the edge, taking Cloud with it. He was so stunned that he couldn't even react to the falling, but, as he hit the ground, he managed to stick it and roll with his momentum so he didn't break a leg. The beam struck the ground with its end, causing it to now protrude out of the dirt like some sort of horrible shrapnel wound.

Cloud stood up and brushed dirt off of his clothes before looking around to get his bearings, blue eyes bright. By his rough estimates, whatever had fallen would have hit the ground fifty yards to his ten o'clock. The blonde set off in that direction, picking his way around even more crumbled concrete and twisted metal.

Just as he arrived at the estimated area, the moon was once again obstructed by storm clouds. He paused to allow his eyes to adjust before he began scouting out the area, looking for any signs of what may have fallen. It was rather hard to distinguish anything within the rubble, but he searched none-the-less.

After just a few minutes, he found something interesting. Blood; it was definitely blood. Theoretically, blood could have fallen during the battle from the wounds inflicted, but, this didn't look like a drop or two that would have fallen from that far up, this was a large patch that even looked smeared around the edges.

This definitely didn't drip, something, and something rather large, fell and landed here. Whatever it was had possibly even stayed there a little while based on the pure amount of blood that was pooled up between and on the cement chunks.

Cloud immediately began combing through the surrounding area in hopes of finding more blood. The dark blood blended into the ground in the already dark environment, finding dark blood is almost impossible.

Suddenly, lightning exploded across the sky, easily lighting up the area enough for him to get a flash look at his surroundings. He thought he noticed a dark spot off to his right, so he worked his way over to it as the thunder overhead seemed to split the air with a deafening crack. He had just made it to the dark spot when another lightning bolt unleashed itself, showing him another brief picture. It was indeed blood, but this was a much smaller amount, whatever was bleeding didn't stay here long.

He turned his face, blue eyes half lidded, toward the angry sky as he felt rain begin hitting his bare arms and upturned face; the freezing rain stung his skin. Cloud needed to move quickly or else the rain would wash away the blood trail.

He was able to find another blood spot and continue on using the lighting as his light source. He eventually made his way to a small overhang under the building on which he had been shot but waited to move forward until the next lightning strike. What he saw chilled him to the bone, more so than the freezing rain, causing his stomach to wrench violently.

Sephiroth. He was slumped against a crumbling wall, clutching his side, his extremely tall and broad frame was folded in on itself, almost painfully so. His long, silver hair hid his face from view and his black overcoat hid the extent of his injuries, though it was clear that he had many. He was covered in blood, Cloud could easily see that, but the lighting was a double-edged sword. It lit the world for a second, only to plunge it into complete darkness for a moment. When Cloud's vision returned, Sephiroth was gone, leaving behind a small pool of blood on the ground, and a smear on the wall.

Cloud rushed forward, heart pounding, trying to pursue him, but it was too dark in the bowels of the building to follow any further; he couldn't see anything, it was too dangerous. Cloud let out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding and drew in a stabilizing breath as he stepped back from the inky-blackness, careful not to trip on the rubble. He couldn't do anything about Sephiroth now anyway, Cloud wasn't carrying his sword, nor could he see in the dark, so he turned and ambled back to the first blood patch. Though, when he arrived, the rain had already picked up strength and had washed it away.

The rain that pounded relentlessly onto Cloud's head was so cold that it was beginning to feel like he was getting brain-freeze, let alone the fact that his shirt was sleeveless and a light knit, holding the freezing water to his body, chilling him further.

There was nothing he could do. He was utterly powerless to do anything about Sephiroth at that moment, and the evidence that he is still alive in the first place was already washed away by the downpour.

Cloud hunched his narrow shoulders against the driving sheets of rain as he picked his way back through the rubble, heading back to the street he had been walking on before. It was slow business, but he eventually made it back to the street lamp and with a final glace back, the hunched his shoulders once again and headed home.

If he had looked back for just a moment longer, he would have noticed the dim pair of green eyes watching his retreating silhouette as another bolt of lightning sizzled across the sky.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello once again, any lovely's! As promised and even a day early (cause that's just how I roll :P), another chapter for you entertainment! Please, please, please send me a review; they are a great encouragement for me! Without further ado, I present, The Path of the Heart!**

"Whaaat?" Yuffie half shrieked as she bounced around the room; her long head band tails flapping wildly behind her. Cloud still had a thick towel on his head, with which he rubbed vigorously over his blonde hair.

"There's no way Sephiroth could be alive again this soon, we saw him and the Advent Children die just yesterday." Tifa said, trying her best to ignore the bounding heiress as Cloud pulled the towel off his head and wringed it around in his hands, out of spite more than anything else. Cloud had already changed out of his freezing and sopping wet clothes and now wore a thick green sweat-shirt and dark wash jeans. He was sitting on the edge of his bed as Vincent spoke from where he stood, leaning against the wall,

"The Advent Children were just manifestations of three different aspects of Sephiroth: Loz was his strength, Yazoo was his allure, and Kadaj was his cruelty and will. Even if they were to return to the Life Stream, that doesn't mean that Sephiroth couldn't have come back, even immediately." Yuffie was still shrieking in the background, mostly ignored by the three adults.

"How is that possible?" Tifa asked from her spot on the edge of the desk on the wall opposite to the bed. Vincent shrugged, saying,

"At the moment all I have is that hunch."

"However he did it, he's back." Cloud said, tossing the towel onto the bed beside him, bright eyes laced with an unknown emotion, even to himself.

"Are you sure you saw him? You're sure it was Sephiroth?" Tifa asked, her legs were stretched out in front of her, ankles crossed.

"Yes, I'm positive." Cloud was getting extremely irritated by Yuffie bouncing around; she rushed over and plopped down on the bed next to Cloud, patting his arm while saying,

"Don't worry, Cloud. We all have moments when we think we saw someone who had already died. It happens to the best of us." Tifa jumped up and yanked Yuffie away by her arm, before either Cloud or Vincent could snap.

"Hey!" Yuffie hollered in response to being dragged bodily from the room.

"Come on; let's go make sure the kids get to bed." Tifa made up as she began descending the stairs with the complaining, squirming girl in tow. Yuffie's protests could be still heard even after the girls had reached the bottom of the bottom of the stairs.

"We'll go have a look tomorrow morning, nothing can be done tonight." Vincent pushed away from the wall, drawing himself up to his full height which is a good five inches taller than Cloud, and took a step forward, placing a hand on Cloud's small shoulder, which looked even smaller with Vincent's hand on it. He gave Cloud a reassuring nod, eyes flashed kindly before he dropped his hand and walked out of the room. Cloud's eyes followed him out of the room, before being closed as he laid back and rolled onto his side, facing away from the door to think.

Maybe he had just imagined Sephiroth, maybe he was losing it. If he was back though, what did that mean? It had been hard enough to kill him the first three times, what if he couldn't the fourth time around? What if he was sick of fighting Sephiroth, maybe this time Cloud wouldn't stop him from doing whatever he wanted.

With a grumble, Cloud rolled onto his stomach and buried his face in the pillow, trying to push away any thoughts of Sephiroth. He didn't want to think anymore about him for the rest of the night.

Slowly, Cloud's mind became groggy and he slipped into sleep, lulled by the sound of the pounding rain against his window. His sleep would be filled with images of Sephiroth, though he wouldn't remember when he awakened.

"This is where the first patch of blood was." Cloud was crouched, blonde spikes falling into his sky blue eyes, showing Vincent and Tifa the rough size of the blood pool in the early morning light. Yuffie was stuck at the restaurant under the pretence of the children needed to be watched while the three of them went to have a look. After a lot of arguing, they finally convinced the Wutai heiress to stay behind.

Cloud stood and pointed out the other areas he found blood before reaching the overhang where he actually saw Sephiroth. The pool of blood on the ground had been washed away, but the smear on the wall was still there, out of the spray of the rain.

"That was where he was sitting." Vincent walked forward and crouched beside the wall, examining the blood with his non-gauntleted hand while his long black hair cascaded over his broad shoulders.

"You're sure the person you saw was in fact Sephiroth?" Tifa asked with rich brown eyes hesitant. Cloud sent her an irritated look, causing her to hold her hands up in surrender and drop that topic.

"Come on, let's have a look inside." Vincent called back to them, deep voice almost booming; he was already inside the building. Cloud and Tifa hurried forward to meet him.

It was dark inside the building, but enough light worked its way through cracks and the large chunks that were missing from the walls so that everything was still visible. Clouds heart pounded and his stomach did somersaults as they searched the first floor, not that he was scared, necessarily, but anxious. The only other evidence they found was a large pool of blood near the front side of the building, next to and on a wall.

"This one is larger than even the first pool I found." Cloud said apprehensively, blue eyes were filled with caution. Vincent crouched next to the pool and touched it. When he withdrew his gloved hand, his finger tips were moist with blood. He rubbed his four finger tips against his thumb,

"It's fresh, probably less than an hour old." Vincent said as he straightened up.

"He's lost a lot of blood, he probably didn't move from here by himself or without good reason." Cloud said, thinking of all the blood he had found the previous night.

"I don't think he did either, there's a footprint in the blood; a small one." Vincent said. Tifa looked startled; she leaned forward and had a look at the print for herself, saying,

"You think a kid helped him?"

"A child wouldn't know any different, being wounded like he must be the child would've wanted to help." Vincent replied; his eyes were guarded as he spoke.

Suddenly, there was a sharp sting on Clouds right shoulder; he spun around to see what had caused the pinch. There was a child with a sling-shot about ten yards away, standing in a door way, with the sling drawn back, the top of his head reached to about Cloud's abdomen, give or take a few inches. Vincent and Tifa turned to face the child as well as the boy said,

"What are you doing here?" He has light brown, messy hair and two different color eyes; his left is green and his right is a dark blue.

"Sweetie, we're looking for a dangerous man, have you seen anyone around here?" He defiantly shook his head, saying,

"You guys look dangerous."

"Why is that?" As Tifa spoke, Vincent leaned over to Cloud and whispered, his deep voice was rough when quieted down like that,

"Look at his feet." Cloud's bright blue eyes traveled down to the boy's feet to find that the boy had some blood on his shoes.

"You're prowling around with weapons." He looked pointedly at Cloud who was carrying a large sword, the Buster Sword to be precise, on his back, as he did so, Vincent also told Tifa about the blood.

"How did you get blood on your shoes, sweetie? Is someone hurt?" Tifa asked. He backed up a step defensively, saying,

"What do you want with Sephy?"

"He's the man we're looking for; we need to take him back." He shook his head violently, yelling,

"You can't have him!" He let fly the stone from his sling, hitting Cloud square in his chest. It didn't hurt this time, but Cloud wondered why he kept aiming at him, he wasn't even speaking. The boy quickly pulled out another rock from his pocket and drew back the sling again.

"Okay, it's alright, but can we at least see him?" Tifa asked gently, her eyes were kind.

"No! You're going to take him away!"

"I promise we won't, we just want to see him." The boy looked at her suspiciously for several moments before he carefully said,

"You pinkie-promise?" Tifa held out her right pinkie as she said,

"Pinkie-promise." The boy walked forward, wearily watching the small group. Once he reached Tifa, he wrapped his pinkie around hers and said,

"Pinkie-promise." He let his small hand drop a moment later, saying,

"Come with me." He walked back to the doorway where he was standing a minute before, and looked back to make sure they were following him.

He led them through several more doors before he came to a stop at the top a staircase, saying,

"Careful, it's kinda slippery." He descended into the darkness with the adults following after him. It was hard to see in the dark, but it wasn't as dark as the previous night, so their eyes adjusted fairly quickly. At the bottom of the stairs, the boy turned left along a hallway which was a bit lighter than the stairs had been. Once the adults turned the corner as well, they could see why, every ten feet or so, there was a lit torch hanging on the wall, lighting the way.

It was grungy in the basement, moist and dirty and smelled heavily of the smoke from the torches. It looked as if a lot of the debris that should be present had been removed though.

Soon, the boy turned right through a door which opened into a rather large room. Along the walls were torches just like in the hall. Several children of all different ages sat in the middle of the room playing with each other.

On the right wall, a brown haired man in his mid-forties was sitting next to Sephiroth, who was laid down on a dirty blanket with an equally dirty one pulled over his waist and legs. His black over coat was removed, exposing his bare chest, which was now wrapped in several bandages. His chest rose and fell in sharp gasps even though he was sleeping at the moment.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again! Nothing much to say here except, PLEASE REVIEW! I love reviews of all kinds! So, without further ado, onto the next chapter!**

The other man looked up with green eyes at the appearance of the boy, saying,

"Hello, Mylo-" he cut off, mid-sentence because he saw the people standing behind the boy, "Who are they?"

"These people are looking for Sephy, they said they just wanted to see him though, they won't take him back." As the man stood, standing at around five ten, he motioned for Mylo to join him before he addressed the adults,

"I'm Benje, Mylo's father, what can I help you with?" He put a protective hand on his son's shoulder as he spoke.

"I'm Tifa Lockhart and this is Cloud Strife and Vincent Valentine," Tifa introduced them before continuing, "That man is dangerous-"

"No he's not!" Mylo interjected with hurt shining in his unique eyes, his father hushed him, allowing Tifa to speak,

"We were looking for him when your son found us. We would like to take him off your hands for you, if we can." She looked at Mylo and gave him a tiny smile, showing him that it was still up to him in her mind.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't believe that. When he was awake, he was nothing but polite, I don't see how he can be dangerous. Besides, my son has grown rather fond of him, I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to just take him away."

"Well, can we at least come back to look in on him periodically?" Tifa asked.

"That's fine with me, as long as you guys don't try any funny business." Benje glanced back at the sleeping Sephiroth before saying, "He's already healed immensely and he's only been here about an hour." Cloud knew that his advanced healing would be due to the Jenova cells and Mako inside his body, similar to his own body, but more potent by far.

"Has he said anything about his injuries while he's been awake?" Tifa asked, looking at Sephiroth as well.

"Well, he said that he couldn't remember anything. The only thing about himself that he could remember was his name, Sephiroth. He remembers coming to on the ground outside of this building then working his way under the over pass after hearing a loud crash. Then came fully inside after the rain and lightning got bad; he also said that he though he remembered seeing a man walking away from the building, but he didn't know for sure." Tifa and Vincent looked at Cloud for confirmation. He nodded, stomach churning, saying,

"I got on the roof to start with, trying to see the trajectory path, and then descended using the steel bars, but one came loose. That must've been the crash he heard. He could've seen me walking away, but I didn't notice him."

"I'm sorry, how do you know him?" Benje asked Cloud, but before he could say anything, Vincent spoke up,

"He's a friend."

Benje pursed his lips in thought, crossings he arms over his strong but slim chest before he said,

"Well, I think it'll be alright if he just stays here for the time being. You're welcome to stay as long as you like and to come back when you want to check-up on him. We'll wait and see what he wants to do when he gets better." He looked over at the small group of playing children before he said,

"Kids, come over here and say hello." They all hurried over and gathered around Benje whispering to each other in not-so-silent voices.

"This is Andrew," he said as he placed a hand on an older boy's blonde head, "He's eleven." Andrew has curious green eyes that rapidly flicked among Tifa, Vincent, and Cloud. "This is Alicia, she's six." She has brown curls that reach past her shoulders and equally brown eyes, she beamed at the group. "This is Jess, she's eight." Only half of her face was visible because she was hiding behind Benje's leg, though her long, black hair and a dark grey eye were visible. "This is Derik, he's ten." He has bright red curls and smart, blue eyes. "You've met Mylo already, he's twelve."

"Are they all yours?" Tifa asked.

"From a biological standpoint, only Mylo, but the rest I've taken in over the years, all orphaned." Just then, Sephiroth stirred and carefully opened his bright green eyes. Benje turned and sat back down next to him, the children took that as a cue that they could go back to playing, which they did.

"Do you recognize any of these people?" Benje asked gently. Sephiroth turned his head gently and looked from Vincent to Tifa and finally looked at Cloud. He paused on Cloud, as if confused or having a déjà vu moment; Cloud's heart was pounding in his chest and his stomach was flipping. Benje glanced up to see who he was looking at before he looked back and asked,

"Do you remember him?" Sephiroth furrowed his brow, green eyes contemplative, before he spoke, voice just a intoxicatingly deep as ever, but softer,

"I think he was the one I saw last night, but I feel like that wasn't the first time I saw him. I – I think I do remember him."

"Do you remember his name?" Benje asked, prodding at Sephiroth's memory. He thought for several more moments before he barely shook his head. "That's Cloud." Benje said, Sephiroth tried to remember, desperately so, but shook his head once again,

"That sounds right, but I don't remember anything." Vincent, Tifa, and Cloud glanced at each other, all thinking the same thing; either Sephiroth was one of the best actors they had ever seen, or he had really lost his memory.

"Who are you to me?" Sephiroth asked to Cloud.

"Um, an acquaintance." It wasn't really a lie, they did know each other; he didn't feel comfortable lying to Sephiroth for some reason. Vincent and Tifa stood there rather awkwardly, well Tifa was anyway, Vincent was calm and perfectly relaxed, as Sephiroth stared long and hard at Cloud, trying to remember. It was Benje who finally spoke up,

"It's alright if you don't remember right now, I'm sure your memories will return soon enough."

"I hope you're right, Benje." Sephiroth said as bright green eyes flitted back up to the ceiling, while doing so, he flinched from a sudden stab of pain, but he hid it well.

"Can I get you anything?" Benje asked. Sephiroth slowly shook his head, saying,

"No, thank you. I just need to rest longer." He closed his eyes again and almost immediately was asleep again. Benje looked up at the little group, cocked his eyebrow, and asked,

"Does that look like a 'dangerous' man to you?" The answer was obvious, so none of them felt the need to verbally say it. Vincent was the first to speak, albeit several moments later, saying,

"Thank you for your hospitality, we will leave now, but I'm sure that at least one of us will come by later today to make sure everything is still fine." Benje nodded as they walked away. Cloud's heart was still racing and his stomach was in knots, even after reaching the stairs and climbing them. He didn't quite know what it was, maybe it was because he had just killed him the other day, and now, here he was, alive and breathing. Or maybe it was just because it was Sephiroth, his heart always pounded when he saw him, usually because a fight was occurring.

Cloud was still trying to shake the feeling even after they had once again reached the street that lead back to the house. They all remained silent as they walked.

"You can't kill a man who doesn't remember what he did wrong!" Tifa interjected. Cloud was pacing and unsettled, while Vincent casually leaned against the wall. They were back in Cloud's room above _Seventh Heaven_.

"What are we supposed to do then? Wait for him to regain his memories and then escape because we weren't there?" Cloud was exasperated and his shoulders were tense.

"I don't know, but we can't just kill him outright! What if his amnesia is permanent, then you just killed an innocent man!"

"He's not innocent, just because he can't remember what he did doesn't mean he didn't do it!" Cloud's eye flashed angrily, but there was also another emotion that Vincent couldn't quite put his finger on. Their shouting match had already been going on for some time.

"So, you're just going to kill him then?" Cloud was extremely frustrated, stumbling slightly over his words,

"No, well, I don't know!"

"See? You just can't bring yourself to kill someone with no recollection of doing anything wrong, can you?" Vincent is just staying out of the conversation but was there to make sure they don't do anything rash.

"Well neither can you!" Tifa took a deep breath, calming herself before she said,

"Why don't you just tell him who he is, for now, and then take it from there. He may remember but have had a change of heart and want to help us or may even try to kill us again, whichever he does, I'd say cross that bridge when we come to it."

"That's a very open ended plan." Cloud lowered his voice as well in an attempt to cool off.

"That may be true, but what else can we do?" Vincent decided to speak, saying,

"Just let his memories come back at their own pace. If you tell him something like that right now, it may send him into a downward spiral. If his mind has time to accept things again, then he may see that he was wrong and work with us; but if he doesn't then he can always be defeated again." They thought about that for a minute before Cloud asked Vincent,

"Well, what do we tell him in the mean time? If we lie to him and tell him we're friends, then he's not going to trust us and probably be the same Sephiroth again once he regains his memories. But we can't tell him the truth if we don't want to tell him who he was before because that would lead to him asking questions about himself."

"First of all, there is no 'we' in this, only you." Cloud cut him off, eyes full of confusion, saying,

"What? Why just me?"

"Because, having more than one of us talking to him can cause us to be caught in our lie more easily, and because you've had the most direct contact with him, you have the most truth to bend; which leads me to my second point. Stick to the truth, but bend and add to it. Make it so that he won't want to argue or even think that it might not be right.

"Third, try to befriend him, if he does come around to see our view, then that will help with breaking the news to him that he hasn't exactly been told the truth. Or, if he relapses back into his old self, then, no harm done, you might even have a leg up on him." Cloud was silent as he contemplated that, before he eventually said,

"It still doesn't sound like the best plan in the world, but I guess it's the only one we've got." Vincent and Tifa both nodded in agreement.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey Y'all, Soaring here! Sorry about the late in the day upload, kinda forgot it was Thursday… I never really know what day it is during the summer, sorry! Please write a review, they always encourage me to write even more! On with the story!**

As Cloud neared the tall building, the lunch sack in his hand grew heavier psychologically; his heart raced and his stomach flipped. They had all eaten lunch before Tifa put together lunch for Benje, the kids, and Sephiroth, sending it with Cloud who left shortly thereafter. Tifa had made him take off his metal shoulder armor, thick leather gloves, and sword holsters, saying that he didn't need to look like he was ready for an attack, that would 'convey the wrong message'.

The mid-afternoon sun beat down strongly on Cloud's blonde head as he had been walking; it was a relief when he entered the building which meant shade. In the sudden darkness, he stumbled on some debris, but didn't actually fall; he moved more cautiously from then on, allowing his eyes to fully adjust.

He managed to navigate his way back to the staircase without anymore incidents and descended into the basement. He walked down the hallway, and then turned right into the room to find that they were all in roughly the same places as before. The children played in the middle of the room, while Benje silently observed from his seat next to Sephiroth, who was now sitting up. He was looking a lot better, even from just a few hours before.

Sephiroth was the first one to notice him walk in; he looked up and said with a kind smile, causing Cloud's heart to pound and the butterflies to return again,

"Hello, Cloud." Benje looked up with darker green eyes than Sephiroth and beckoned Cloud over. He took a seat on the floor a few feet in front of Benje and Sephiroth before he handed the sack over, saying,

"Tifa made lunch for you guys as her way of saying thanks for caring for our friend." Benje accepted the lunches with a surprised look on his face, saying,

"Thank you." He set the sack on the floor in front of him before untied the top to have a look at what was inside. Five, child sized, and two, adult sized bento boxes and chopsticks for each. "Children, come over here and have a look at what Cloud has brought us." They dropped their toys and ran over, and then squealed in delight when they saw the bento boxes. Benje handed out the bento boxes and chopsticks to each child, who thanked him, and then turned to Cloud and said,

"Thank you, Mister!" Cloud smiled and said, _You're welcome_ to each one. Benje handed Sephiroth one as well before he took the other for himself. The children sat around the adults and all opened their boxes at the same time.

They all ate their lunches of rice and curry before they stacked their boxes up neatly in front of Benje. All the children said _thank you_ once again before they went back to playing in the middle of the room. Sephiroth and Benje put their boxes on the bottom of the pile before Benje retied the sack for Cloud.

"Thank you so much for the food, Cloud." Benje said before Sephiroth said,

"Yes, thank you." Cloud nodded in acceptance instead of saying anything, blue eyes only glancing at Benje for short moments before dropping back to the ground, but never looked at Sephiroth. Sephiroth broke the silence a few moments later, saying,

"Benje and I were just discussing my injuries; do you know how I got them?" Clouds heart started hammering again as he replied,

"Well, we were chasing two guys who had just robbed a shop. They tried going on the roof to lose us, but we were able to follow. They pulled out swords to fight us, so we did the same; you went after one and I went after the other.

"I had just defeated the man when I heard you shout behind me. When I spun around, you were falling from the buildings edge, your opponent had pushed you over, but he pulled a gun out and shot me in the chest. I collapsed without being able to do anything; the shot would've killed me if our other friends hadn't come and taken me to the Healing Waters, they didn't know you were there at that time.

"After I regained consciousness, we've been trying to find you, not knowing if you were dead or alive." Cloud's heart pounded while his stomach felt like it was having a full on gymnastic rehearsal. Sephiroth was thoughtfully looking at his hands, which were in his lap, with his bright green eyes. Benje and Cloud gave him several moments to mull that over before Benje asked,

"Does that sound familiar at all?"

"I remember… falling, and incredible, intense pain. But…" he slowly shook his head, "nothing else." Benje nodded.

"Okay, it's alright, if your mind heals anything like your body does, your memory will be back shortly." Sephiroth remembered something, saying,

"Speaking of that, are these bandages still necessary?" Benje shrugged, saying,

"I don't know, how about I have a look?" He pushed himself up onto his knees and shuffled the couple feet to Sephiroth's side. After Sephiroth moved his arm out of the way, Benje carefully unwound a large strip of bandage that wrapped around his chest. Underneath, the wound was closed up already, though it wasn't completely done healing, it was closed enough so that the bandage was no longer necessary.

"Well, that looks good! That was one of the worst ones; if this one is so closed already I'm sure the other ones will be as well." Slowly but easily, he checked all of the other wounds to find that they were indeed all closed up, most were completely gone, not even a scar or trace left of where they had been.

Now that all of the bandages where removed, it completely exposed his well muscled chest. Cloud didn't really know why, but he felt that he needed to look elsewhere than at Sephiroth.

They continued to talk for almost an hour about Cloud, Sephiroth, and their group of friends; Cloud was still unable to look Sephiroth in the eyes, before Benje said,

"Sorry, but I've got to get the kids down for a nap and they really hate naps, so it may take me awhile; are you okay by yourselves for a bit?" Cloud nodded, while Sephiroth said,

"That's fine; please don't let me be a burden." With that, Benje stood up and walked over to the children who were still playing in the middle of the room. Cloud turned his head and watched Benje, with bright, but nervous blue eyes, get the protesting herd of children up and moving, Cloud watched them more so just because that gave him a good excuse not to make eye contact with Sephiroth.

Cloud still had his head turned from watching Benje leading the children from the room, when he suddenly felt hands on his chest, pushing him onto his back. He was so surprised that he wasn't able to resist the movement. He opened his eyes to find that Sephiroth had pinned him down; not physically, per se, but more symbolically. His right elbow was on the floor to the left of Cloud's head, whereas, his other hand was on the ground at Cloud's right side. Sephiroth's knees were on either side of Cloud's thighs.

Cloud's heart raced, thumping wildly in his chest, stomach writhed away. Sephiroth had a curious look on his face, like he was trying to figure something out, making his beautiful green eyes to look just a shade darker than normal.

"Who are you to me? Don't lie." Sephiroth moved his free hand and placed it on Cloud's chest, just over his heart; he watched his hand move before he looked back at Cloud's face, green eye's searching blue ones. "Every time I've seen you your heart's been pounding, hasn't it?" He paused, searching Cloud's bright blue eyes. He was so close that Cloud could see his own reflection in Sephiroth's eyes; he couldn't hold his gaze for more than a few seconds before he had to look away.

"And that, you can't look me in the eye." Sephiroth moved his head into Cloud's new line of sight, forcing eye contact. He was much closer now, Cloud was beginning to panic, if his heart went any faster, it threatened to fail, his stomach was turning so badly it threatened to force out his small lunch. "Either you're guilty about something, or …" He moved his head forward but stopped an half an inch away to judge Cloud's reaction. Cloud could hardly even breathe, his breaths came in short, sharp gasp's.

Sephiroth eased in the rest of the way and kissed him. As soon as their lips touched, a sharp shiver shot down Cloud's spine, causing his back to arch, which closed the narrow gap between their chests. Cloud's breath was caught in his throat, only allowing tiny amounts of air past, not fulfilling the needs of his racing heart, causing it to pound even harder, begging for oxygen.

Through the thin knit of Cloud's shirt, he could feel that Sephiroth's heartbeat was steady, unlike his own. Sephiroth pulled back just an inch, breaking their contact to say,

"So I was right, now you're all flustered." It was true, Cloud's face was extremely red and he was still panting for breath. Sephiroth kissed him again. He moved a hand to the base of Cloud's neck, kissing him harder. Cloud had moved before he even knew what was happening; he pushed himself up into a more upright position, pushing Sephiroth back onto just his knees, and placed a hand on his cheek, kissing him back.

Cloud didn't really know what he was doing, this man had just been his enemy a few days before, and now, here he was kissing him. He wasn't just keeping his cover either; just when had he begun developing feelings for this man? At this moment in time, he didn't really know or quite frankly care.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! I hope you guys are having a wonderful Forth! If you're not in the USA, then I hope you're having a wonderful Thursday! *throws cookies around* Please review, I love reviews of all kinds and they really do inspire me to write even more! **

Cloud pulled his legs out from underneath Sephiroth and tucked them beneath himself so that he was on his knees. Cloud slowly pushed Sephiroth back until he was forced to sit on his heels. Because Sephiroth is quite a bit taller, when Cloud is on his knees like this with Sephiroth sitting on his heels, he finally managed to be taller than Sephiroth.

His head was tilted up to be able to still meet Cloud, who's free hand was now on the back of Sephiroth's head, pushing its way through his long, silver hair. Sephiroth snaked a hand around to Cloud's lower back and pulled him closer; Cloud felt Sephiroth's lips smile when he felt that Cloud's heart was still racing. _Smug bastard._ Cloud thought, he'd get him back sometime, somehow. For now, though, settled for kissing him deeper and pushing him back again.

Just a second later, he didn't even know it was happening until after it occurred, somehow, Sephiroth had flipped him onto his back and had pinned him again. With a haughty expression on his face, his deep voice added a distinct rumble the words,

"Nah ah ah, I know what you're trying to do. You can't pin me." Cloud took that as a challenge. He leaned up and nipped Sephiroth's lower lip to surprise him before Cloud kicked out his left leg, throwing him off balance just long enough for Cloud to flip him, evoking a soft grunt of surprise and made his green eyes widen.

He was now straddling Sephiroth's waist, and sitting on his abdomen; Cloud leaned forward, with both hands on Sephiroth's chest and purred into his ear,

"Pinned." The warm breath on Sephiroth's ear caused him to shiver, which brought a grin to Clouds face for the sweet payback. As Cloud sat back upright, Sephiroth came up and claimed Cloud's lips again. Cloud slid his hands up from Sephiroth's chest and came to a rest just in front of his ears.

Sephiroth wrapped a hand around the back of both of Cloud's thighs, but he caught onto what Sephiroth was doing just a second too late, he was already flipped.

He glared blue daggers up at the overly smug Sephiroth who loomed above him once again. Sephiroth brushed his lips over Cloud's jaw before he said, in his intoxicatingly deep voice,

"Pinned again." The shock that shot down Cloud's spine caused his back to arch, but was also so painful, that a gasp of pain escaped his lips. Sephiroth wasn't expecting a pain response, so the gasp caused him to halt, asking,

"Did I hurt you?" The genuine concern on his face and in his eyes was so shocking to Cloud that he quickly kissed him again, trying to erase his concern away. Sephiroth had changed though, he kissed him back, but gently, carefully, unsure of what had hurt Cloud. Cloud reached back up and caught both sides of Sephiroth's face in his hands again before he pulled back just enough so that Sephiroth would look at him.

"I'm fine. You didn't hurt me." He still didn't look convinced, so Cloud buried his face in Sephiroth's neck before he repeated quietly, "I'm fine." Sephiroth gently eased Cloud's legs from under himself as he sat back and pulled Cloud into his lap, so that he sat sideways. Cloud's head remained in the crook of Sephiroth's neck the whole time. Sephiroth wrapped his arms around Cloud's waist and pulled him in tightly.

They sat like that for quite a while, not talking or moving. Suddenly, someone cleared their throat in the doorway; both Cloud and Sephiroth jerked at the sudden sound. Benje stood, arms crossed, leaning against the doorjamb with an almost smug look on his face.

"Did I happen to miss something?" Cloud tried to move off Sephiroth's lap, but he just tightened his grip on Cloud, holding him hostage, asking,

"What might something be?" Benje grinned, dark green eyes sparkling, saying, with a shrug,

"Oh, nothing in particular; but my suspicion was right." Sephiroth cocked an eyebrow,

"Suspicion?" Benje slowly nodded, saying,

"Yup, ever since I first saw Cloud there, he's seemed a bit strange. Nervous energy, can't really look anyone in the eye; that's why I insisted that you stay here, he was suspicious to me, hiding something. I guess now I know." With that, he pushed off the doorjamb and walked away. Cloud dropped his head onto Sephiroth's chest, as if he was suddenly too tired to hold it up anymore. Sephiroth buried his face in Cloud's thick, blonde hair as he muttered,

"What is it?" Cloud's eyes were still closed when he responded quietly,

"I don't like it when people sneak up on me." Sephiroth gave a knowing smile, eyes gleaming, as he said,

"I can tell." It was true; he could feel Cloud's heart slamming against his ribcage. A few minutes later, everything and been quiet for a little while, when the silence was cut by the shrill beeping of Cloud's cell phone. Sephiroth released his grip just enough so that Cloud could quickly pull his phone out of his pocket. He flipped it open and then pressed it to his ear, saying,

"Hello." He jerked it away from his ear at a shriek from the other end. After what seemed like an eternity, the shriek stopped, but was replaced by,

"Cloud! Cloud! Cloud! Cloud! Cloud! Cloud! Cloud!" The voice became even more shrill and insistent each time it said his name. Cloud covered the earpiece with his hand and then spoke into the mouth piece,

"Yuffie! Calm down. What is it?" He removed his hand to hear,

"-ome home! Quickly! It's an emergency!"

"On my way." With that, he flipped the phone shut and shoved it back in his pocket. "I've gotta go, there's an emergency at the house." Cloud climbed out of Sephiroth's lap and stood up, quickly followed by Sephiroth himself. Cloud had just taken his first step toward the door, when he felt a hand grab his and pull him back. He was spun around and collided into Sephiroth's chest. Cloud looked up at him to find him with a sad look in his eye, saying,

"Don't do anything foolish." Cloud nodded, replying,

"I won't." Sephiroth leaned down and gently caught Cloud's lips with his own. Cloud reached up and placed a hand on Sephiroth's cheek as he softly kissed him back. A moment later, Cloud pulled back and hurried from the room, almost forgetting to grab the empty bento boxes, leaving Sephiroth's green eyes to watch him leave. Cloud couldn't look back, he was already strangely choked up, if he did look back he might lose it.

Cloud threw open the door to _Seventh Heaven_ to find Yuffie, Tifa, and Vincent standing in the middle of the restaurant. Yuffie was shrieking as normal while Tifa tried to calm her down and Vincent just stayed out of the way. Yuffie spun around to face him, yelling,

"We're all out of root beer!" Cloud literally face-planted. He angrily picked himself off the floor, saying,

"Don't tell me that was the emergency! Was it?" Yuffie violently nodded her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Vincent?" Cloud didn't look over at him, but knew he was listening, so he continued, "You'd better hold me back." Cloud jumped at Yuffie, fury burning, causing his eyes to be several shades darker than normal, who squealed and darted behind Tifa, but Vincent was already and his side, holding his arms behind his back, restraining him.

"I thought there was a real emergency!" Yuffie stuck her head around Tifa, yelling back,

"This is a real emergency!"

"I ran all the way here! By the way you were screaming, someone had just died!"

About ten minutes later, Cloud had finally calmed down enough for Vincent to release him.

"So, how did it go with Sephiroth?" Tifa asked, pushing Yuffie out from behind her. Cloud almost face-planted again, but maintained his composure and said,

"Fine, now that he's not trying to destroy the planet, he's actually a human being." It wasn't a lie, he was acting like a human being now.

"I won't say I told you so, so I'll move onto the next topic, how'd they like lunch?"

"They loved it and send their greatest thanks." He was glad for the topic change, but the relief only lasted for a moment before Yuffie asked,

"Has he really lost his memories?" Cloud felt the urge to lash out at the teen for her stupidity, but kept a straight face and eyes blank as he responded,

"Yes, he truly doesn't remember anything."

"Did he ask about how he got beaten up so bad?" She was grating on his nerves.

"Yes, and made up a believable story. He accepted it."

They finally dropped the questionnaire and allowed him to leave almost half an hour later. He managed to keep a straight face the entire time, but towards the end he thought he might lose control if Yuffie asked one more stupid question. Vincent wisely refrained from asking any questions, though he didn't bother to keep his eyes guarded, letting Yuffie and Tifa talk, but he watched Cloud closely. Cloud couldn't tell if Vincent knew something was up, and was getting nervous.

Why should he be nervous though? It's not like Vincent cares about Cloud's relationships, but with whom could be a problem. Vincent doesn't trust easily and not without good reason; he's got every right though.

Yuffie was as thick as always. Tifa didn't seem like she suspected anything, but she wasn't acting exactly like herself either. Neither one of them cared about his relationship's either, but they would both die if they found out about Sephiroth.

Cloud was too deep in thought to notice Vincent standing in his doorway. Cloud was sitting behind his desk in his office, supposed to be doing the paperwork that had build-up since he left after contracting Geostigma.

"Cloud." Vincent spoke softly but his deep voice made it seem louder. Cloud flinched, his eyes had so many emotions swirling around in them that it was hard to pin down one single emotion. Cloud looked at Vincent, before his brain registered and he said,

"Come in." Cloud straightened in his chair as Vincent walked in and took a seat on one of the two chairs in front of the desk. Vincent merely watched him, not saying anything, but just looked at him. Several moments later, Cloud shifted uncomfortably in his seat, saying,

"Was there something I could help you with?" Vincent remained silent for a moment longer, before he drew in a breath and said,

"I don't care." Cloud recoiled, not expecting that response.

"About what?" The silence bothered Cloud. It was almost a full minute later before Vincent said,

"You and Sephiroth," He watched Cloud, gauging his reaction, "I trust your judgment. If you think he can be trusted, then I've no other option than to trust you." Cloud felt like his face had just drained of color, but he hoped that it wasn't so; Vincent's red eyes watching him carefully.

"Well… um…" He couldn't actually think of anything to say. Vincent leaned forward and rested his chin on his fist before he said,

"You're my best friend, Cloud, I find it hard to believe that you thought I wouldn't notice the difference in you." Cloud just sat there, rather dumbfounded until Vincent spoke again,

"No, Yuffie doesn't know." Cloud looked up at him, saying,

"Just Yuffie?" Vincent gave him a half shrug as he said,

"Why don't you ask our eavesdropper?" Cloud looked up just in time to see Tifa step into the room. She was carrying a tray with a couple coffee mugs.

"I can't say that I like the fact that you've chosen Sephiroth, but I trust you as well." Cloud flicked his eyes between the two; Vincent was quite stoic, his usual self, but Tifa had a wide range of emotions showing clearly on her face. Hate, disgust, but also compassion, care, and worry. She walked forward and set the tray down on his neat desk, saying,

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just though you could use a cup of coffee. You had seemed a little off this afternoon." She picked one up and offered it to him. He accepted the cup with a nod, not trusting himself to speak. He took a sip of the steaming, black liquid before he glanced out his window, it was dark outside already, the sun had long since set.

Tifa handed a cup to Vincent before taking one herself and sat in the other free chair. They stayed quiet while Cloud thought things through.

Cloud looked back at his two friends, both of whom were watching him, so he asked,

"How did you figure it out?"

"We're your friends, Cloud, we know when something's up with you." Tifa said.

"You are not a naturally nervous person, you make eye contact and hold it, even after the other person has looked away. How you were acting this morning and afternoon made it clear that something had changed." Vincent replied into his coffee mug.

"Well, um, that aside, what are we going to do once he's fully healed, which should be sometime tonight by his rate of healing." Cloud asked, only allowing his eyes to look into the dark substance, taking another sip of the hot liquid.

"That is up to you, Cloud. You know him the best and will know if he can be trusted." Vincent replied. Cloud thought about that for several minutes before he looked up at both his friends, confident in his decision.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello, my lovelies! I won't give a long babbling speech like I usually do, so, please review and enjoy!**

Standing before the imposing structure, he didn't feel so confident anymore.

Rain was coming, this time it would be lighter though, maybe just a sprinkle, but its scent hung in the air. The sun was mostly blocked out by the overcast sky.

Cloud took a breath before he took his first step forward. He continued navigating his way back to the basement, this time without tripping on anything. Just as he turned left at the base of the stairs, he felt hands push him against the wall and lips meet his. His heart raced, startled.

Sephiroth drew back just enough to purr with his intoxicatingly deep voice,

"Was I able to sneak up on you?" His heart still pounded as he replied,

"Quite effectively so, I'm afraid." Cloud kissed him back, pushing Sephiroth's silver bangs off his cheeks. He wrapped an arm around Cloud's lower back, pulling him closer. He didn't have his black jacket back on yet, so his perfectly mar-less chest was completely exposed, he also didn't have his boots on, so he was barefoot; that was probably the main reason that he could sneak up on Cloud.

Several moments later, Cloud pulled back just enough so that he could ask,

"How are you feeling this morning?" Sephiroth gave him a tiny smile, saying,

"Back to perfect health. What about you?" Cloud replied,

"Wonderful." Just as he was going to kiss him again, someone cleared their throat, causing Cloud to freeze.

"As entertaining as this is, I really do have children to care for. Are you coming in or not?" Benje asked from his position leaning against a doorjamb. Cloud ducked under Sephiroth's arm that was propped against the wall. As he moved away, Sephiroth's hand managed to stay just a fraction of a second longer than necessary on Cloud's lower back, causing his spine to shiver again, which Sephiroth so conveniently didn't miss.

He followed closely after Cloud, who walked toward Benje.

With a final farewell to Benje and the children, Cloud and Sephiroth, who was now donning his black jacket and heavy boots, walked out of the room and down the hall. Sephiroth wrapped an arm around Cloud's waist, pulling him closer while they walked; Cloud didn't protest.

When they walked out of the building, it was much darker outside; at any moment the sky would open. They hurried along, almost silently, only occasionally saying something. Usually, it was Sephiroth asking about something he saw.

It didn't take them long to make it back to _Seventh Heaven_, but once they had just crossed the threshold, it began raining. It was slow at first, but it soon became heavier, proving Cloud's earlier forecast of only light rain, false.

Luckily, there were no customers and Yuffie was nowhere to be seen. Sephiroth looked around the restaurant, taking everything in as Vincent looked up with his deep red eyes from where he sat on a bar stool to say,

"Welcome back." Sephiroth looked over at him quizzically,

"I saw you yesterday, didn't I?" Vincent stood up and strode over, saying,

"Indeed you did. Vincent Valentine." He held out a hand to Sephiroth, who took it after unwrapping it from Cloud's side, saying,

"Cloud told me about you." Vincent cocked an eyebrow at Cloud, who looked away, to busy examining a 'riveting' fork that sat on the table nearest him. "He says that you're a good man who can handle himself in a fight." As they dropped their hands back to their sides, Vincent said, looking back to Cloud,

"Did he now?" Cloud could feel his face flushing red; he was embarrassed, though there's no reason why he should be, it was true. Just then, Tifa walked through the doors that lead to the kitchen. She noticed them, so she walked over, saying,

"Hello, boys."

"You were there as well?" Sephiroth was referring the previous morning. Tifa nodded, saying,

"Tifa Lockhart." She extended her hand, which Sephiroth shook carefully.

"Do you remember anything more?" Tifa asked as she dropped her hand. Sephiroth thought for a moment before saying,

"I don't think so, I do feel that I've met you both before, but I don't remember how or when. Though, I don't seem to remember the teen."

"What teen?" Tifa asked, deep brown eyes were confused. He pointed to his two o'clock, revealing the not-so-hidden Yuffie. She stayed motionless for a few more seconds, hoping that they still hadn't seen her before she bounded over, squealing,

"Hi! I'm Yuffie, but we've never actually met up close, I've only seen you from afar." Yuffie circled him, looking him up and down several times before Tifa darted her hand out and grabbed onto the scruff of her shirt, stopping her in her tracks. Yuffie yelped in surprise, but Tifa didn't pay her any mind as she drug the protesting Yuffie behind her, disappearing into the kitchen through double swinging doors.

"Don't worry, she's always that annoying." Vincent looked over at Cloud who was still avoiding his eye contact before continuing, "Why don't you give him the tour; maybe that will help his memory." Cloud nodded, still not looking at him, and hurried forward. Sephiroth hadn't moved after Cloud had taken a step, so Cloud reached back and grabbed his wrist, pulling him along, wanting to quickly get away from Vincent. Sephiroth didn't say anything about Cloud's impatience but instead looked around as they walked, slipping an arm around Cloud's waist and held him to his side.

The last room he showed Sephiroth was Cloud's office. Sephiroth just stood in the doorway for a moment, taking everything in. Cloud thought he saw something flash through Sephiroth's gorgeous green eyes, but it was gone again a moment later.

The immaculately organized surfaces and neatly arranged furniture. The books in the bookcase on the right wall that are all organized alphabetically, are perfectly straight; the several stacks of paper are all lined up perfectly with the desk's edge. Sephiroth walked forward and wandered around the room, looking more closely.

Cloud stood by the wall on the left of the door which opened into the room, watching him with bright blue eyes as Sephiroth analyzed the room. Cloud nervously tried to gauge Sephiroth's reactions, but he was hiding any reactions extremely well; Cloud couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing.

During his circle of the office, Sephiroth eventually made it back to in front of Cloud, but he kept walking towards Cloud, pushing him back against the wall without even physically touching him. Sephiroth leaned his right elbow against the wall to the left side of Clouds head, using it as support before he leaned closer, purring,

"Orderly. Mmm." He caught Cloud's lips, leaning the rest of the way in. Cloud moved Sephiroth's silver hair back with both hands while pushing him back just a little so that he wouldn't have to hunch over so far.

Suddenly, there was an earsplitting shattering sound from downstairs, causing Cloud to jump and then a moment later, pull back, saying,

"I'd better go see what broke." Sephiroth, for a split second, looked rather akin to a puppy that just had his toy taken away, but the look disappeared just as quickly as it had come, he didn't say anything as he followed Cloud from the office.

Downstairs, the floor behind the counter was covered in white porcelain shards. Tifa had just began sweeping up the glass, so Cloud asked her,

"What happened?" Tifa shrugged,

"I was carrying a large tray of dirty plates, there was a puddle of water on the floor, I guess, and I slipped."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Okay," Cloud surveyed the damage once more before he continued, "I'll go grab a paper bag." Cloud walked along the length of the bar on the outside, before he easily vaulted over it, after he had cleared the majority of the glass, landing with a soft thump on the other side. He pushed open the double doors to the kitchen and walked through them.

Sephiroth still stood by Tifa, who was still sweeping, so he said,

"May I?" He held out a hand to take the broom from her. She looked up at him before she put the broom in his hand and said, with a shrug,

"If you wanna." He began sweeping, leaving her to lean against the bar to watch him with her rich brown eyes. After a few moments, she said,

"Don't hurt him." Sephiroth looked over at her out of the corner of his green, cat-like eye, asking,

"What?" She shrugged again,

"He trusts and believes in you. Don't make him regret it." Sephiroth had a small, almost sad smile, saying,

"You don't have anything to worry about." A few moments later, Cloud walked back through the kitchen doors, now holding a brown paper bag. Sephiroth had just about finished sweeping up the shards, so Cloud pulled out the dust pan from under the sink.

About a minute later, they had swept up all the glass and had thrown away the bag. After a final _thank you_ from Tifa, Cloud and Sephiroth walked back up the stairs and to Cloud's office. Cloud walked around to the back of his desk and sat in the thickly padded chair as he said,

"I really have to finish this paperwork; I've been gone for a while so it's backed up. You can read a book if you want."

"That's fine." Sephiroth immediately pulled down a book that had caught his eye when he first inspected the room and sat down with it in the left chair in front of Cloud's desk. Sephiroth stretched out his long legs as he opened to the first page.

Cloud pulled the first stack of paper apprehensively toward himself.

Cloud sat down on his bed, gripping the edge as he thought. He managed to finish all of his paper work with only two breaks, lunch and dinner, which were both short.

He already got Sephiroth settled into the guest room, so that was fine. Cloud was now donning black, cotton pants and a white tee shirt. He pushed off the bed and padded over to the door, barefoot, and flicked the light switch, plunging the room into darkness. He navigated back to his bed and laid down.

What if Sephiroth regained his memories and relapsed into his old self? Would they have to kill him? He severely doubted if he could even bring himself to do that.

What would they do with him for now? The only thing they could really do was to continue on as normal as possible, just with another member. Yuffie was leaving tomorrow anyway, so he could easily take her place on the team.

Cloud pulled his blanket over his shoulder as he rolled over and buried his face in his pillow. He didn't want to think about this stuff. Everything was complicated now. Making sure that Sephiroth didn't suspect anything while acting like they wanted his memories to return; Cloud tried to block out the thoughts.

Slowly, his mind began to quiet down, allowing him to drift off into sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey, Y'all! It's Soaring back again with a new chapter for The Path of the Heart! *hunches shoulders a bit* Please don't kill me, this chapter takes a wild turn with far too many feels! Please review and tell me what you think, though!**

"Bye, catch you guy's later!" Yuffie hollered over her shoulder as she disappeared through the front doors. It was mid-morning and she was finally gone. Vincent, Tifa, and Cloud all had a consecutive, internal sigh of relief. She grates on everyone's nerves, making them more edgy, but she always seems completely oblivious to it all.

The patrons in the restaurant looked up at the door slam, but a moment later, returned to their conversations and meals. The quiet din of the restaurant was indeed quiet compared to what Vincent, Tifa, and Cloud had grown accustomed to with Yuffie around.

"Well, she's a pocket full of sunshine, isn't she?" Sephiroth commented, arms crossed and straight faced. Cloud tried to stifle a laugh, but he ended up snorting, rather loudly. Even Vincent smirked a tiny bit, as Tifa said with a wide smile,

"That's an understatement."

"Excuse me, Miss?" A lady a few tables away was twisted around in her chair, looking at the small group.

"Yes, Ma'am?" Tifa asked as she walked over to her. Suddenly, Cloud could faintly hear his cell phone ringing; he left it in his office.

"I need to go get that." He weaved a path between the tables as he made his way to the stairs. He took the stairs two at a time, trying to get there faster. Once at the top, he walked right along the hall for a few strides before turning left into his office. He walked up to his desk, and leaned over the side, reaching for his cell phone, when a hand reached around and touched the top of his own, stopping it.

The phone quit ringing as Sephiroth slowly wrapped his arms around Cloud and buried his face in Cloud's bright, blonde hair. Cloud sighed before he muttered,

"You know, you really should've let me get that." Sephiroth tightened his arms as he breathed in Cloud's scent before he quietly said,

"Oops, sorry." Cloud turned in his grasp and whispered into Sephiroth's ear,

"The sarcasm is unnecessary." Sephiroth tilted his head onto Cloud's, saying,

"If you keep using that tone of voice, hmm…" He let his sentence drift off. Cloud smirked and placed his left hand on Sephiroth's cheek, saying,

"Or what?" There was a deep rumble in the back of Sephiroth's throat as he claimed Cloud's lips; he put a hand on the base of his neck, before bodily lifting him and sitting him on the edge of the desk. He muttered quietly,

"Or I'll stop holding back." Sephiroth captured Cloud's lips again, hand on his lower back, pulling him closer. Cloud grasped Sephiroth's lapel's a pulled him down just a fraction of an inch before the cell phone rang again.

Cloud froze for a moment before he pulled back and dropped his head onto Sephiroth's shoulder as he reached back to the phone. He flipped open the phone and held it up to his ear without opening his eyes.

"Hello."

"Buddy! Hey, it's Reno, how've ya been?"

"What do you want, Reno?" Cloud could feel Sephiroth turn his head toward his own, curious.

"Okay then, no need to be rude," Cloud could hear Reno chuckling to himself, "Rude, get it?" More laughter ensued. Cloud sighed before taking a deep breath, saying,

"Reno, Reno, shut up." Cloud gave him a moment to calm down before he continued, "What do you want?"

"Oh, right, right. There's a kid here, he wants me to tell you _poisoning_." Cloud put a hand on Sephiroth's chest and pushed slowly, sitting up straight, shocking blue eyes wide open, asking,

"What did you just say?" Sephiroth touched Cloud's shoulder, concerned.

"_Poisoning_, that's all he's saying about it. He just wants to tell you that one word." Cloud moved Sephiroth out of his way with his hand before he stood up and took a few steps forward as he said,

"Do not let the boy out of your sight, I'm on my way." Cloud snapped the phone closed before Reno could even respond. Cloud stood, frozen, just staring at the wall. Sephiroth reached out and touched his arm, asking,

"What's wrong?" Cloud glanced down at Sephiroth's hand before returning his blue gaze to the wall. He was quiet for a moment before he spoke,

"That was a man named Reno, there's a boy who has something for me from an old friend of mine. We need to go get it." Cloud shoved the phone into his pocket as Sephiroth said,

"Well, it looks like you've seen a ghost." Cloud visibly flinched away, causing Sephiroth to worry even more. Cloud took a deep, although shaky breath before he said,

"Let's just go." As Cloud strode from the room, Sephiroth followed, asking,

"So, where are we headed?"

Cloud and Sephiroth stepped onto the train and sat on the wall seats closest to the door. The train car slowly filled with passengers before the captain came across the PA system, saying,

"This train is heading to Station 9, near the Chocobo Farm." The captain sounded tense, but it can be a tough job sometimes. Cloud's blue eyes glanced around the car at the passengers, they were all normal civilians; mostly farmers, but several were townsmen.

As the train began to move, the sudden momentum pushed Cloud into Sephiroth, who sat on his right. The train slowly gained speed; the grey, metallic scenery flew by.

"So, who's this friend of yours?" Cloud hunched forward with his elbows on his knees; he pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a shaky breath. Sephiroth placed a hand on Cloud's back but didn't say anything.

"His name is Zack. Zack Fair. Whenever we were separated but needed to get something to the other person, we would send a messenger with a _safe word_. Our word was _poisoning_; Reno is saying that there's a boy wanting to talk to me, saying that word." He paused for a moment before he continued, "The thing is, he's dead, has been for a while now." Sephiroth rubbed small, slow circles on Cloud's back, saying,

"Sorry." Cloud's blue gaze flicked over to him, but went back to looking at his hands as he said,

"Thanks, but like I said, it was awhile ago." Sephiroth's rubbing paused for a moment, gauging Cloud's response before he continued rubbing as he said,

"Time doesn't make the pain go away, you know." Cloud slowly looked over at Sephiroth through misted eyes. He couldn't hold Sephiroth's gaze, so he dropped his head into his hands for a couple seconds before he quickly ran both hands through his hair. He took a deep, unsteady breath before he sat up straighter and said,

"He was my best friend and he died because of me."

"No." Cloud flinched, blue eyes pained. "No, he didn't die because of you; he gave his life to protect you." Cloud couldn't even look over at Sephiroth. Sephiroth continued rubbing circles but didn't say anything more, he allowed Cloud to speak if he wanted to.

The scenery had slowly changed from grey steel to green as they left the city behind. The train began to run along a cliff with an ocean on the left a hundred feet down.

The intercom hissed to life as the captain's voice said,

"This is your captain speaking; we have a change in plans. Thank you for riding with us and farewell." Immediately the passengers began to murmur, wondering what that had meant, some were louder than others.

"What the hell was that supposed to mean?" A man yelled out. Sephiroth jumped out of his seat as he figured out what it meant and wrapped his arms tightly around Cloud, shielding him with his own body.

"What are you- no, NO!" Cloud figured out what was happening just as the train exploded.

The fireball ripped through the front portion of the train car, instantly killing several people; the shrapnel that came with it killed others further back. The car bucked off the tracks as the wheels shattered and the track splintered and disintegrated. The squeal of tearing metal was deafening as the train toppled over onto its side and slid off the cliff.

Sephiroth opened his eyes to find that Cloud was no longer in his grasp. He could feel the shrapnel protruding from his back, but he ignored it, he had to find Cloud. Bodies were jumbled around, all mutilated to some degree, as the train fell over the edge. He spotted Cloud's shockingly blonde hair; he was on the floor and sliding further away, with the pitch of the train. Cloud's head was covered in blood and left streaks along the floor.

Sephiroth stumbled forward, reaching out to him but was flung onto the roof of the train as the car hit the cliff face, sending it into a violent spin. Bodies of the screaming, unconscious, dead, and dying alike were all tossed around like a dryer set on tumble.

As the train slammed into the water below, it felt like falling one hundred feet onto cement. Sephiroth smashed against the side of the train, sending his world into silence. Even as the water quickly flooded in through the broken windows, he couldn't hear anything.

He saw Cloud's blonde head sink beneath the surface as Sephiroth blacked out.

Sephiroth couldn't hear correctly, it sounded like he was under water. He moved his head, but stopped at the searing pain that shot down his back. That was when he remembered.

His eyes flew open to find that he was indeed underwater, surrounded by floating corpses. The water was clouded with blood and gore from the dead and dying. He franticly looked around for Cloud, pushing past the excruciating pain radiating throughout his body.

He spotted blonde hair at the far side of the car; he franticly kicked, swimming over to him, pushing the corpses out of his way. When he got there, as he was reaching for Cloud, he stopped, horrified.

A large, metal rod stuck through his chest on the right side. Sephiroth began shaking as he reached out to touch the pipe. He knew that he shouldn't remove it, but he couldn't do anything else after he noticed the back of the pipe, it was a part of the train's frame, he couldn't just pull it from the wall.

He put both hands on Cloud's back, surrounding the rod, and pushed, gently but as quickly as possible, using the wall to prop his shoulders against. As Cloud's body cleared the end of the rod, he floated forward, still completely limp.

Sephiroth pushed off the wall, swimming toward Cloud, and wrapped an arm around his chest before kicking as hard as he could toward a window, shoving corpses out of his path with his free arm. He grasped the edge of the window sill and propelled himself upward, ignoring the glass that that slashed his palm open; down to bone in fact.

As his head broke the surface, he took a deep, frantic gasp, followed by several more. Sephiroth kicked towards a tiny cove he saw as he rolled Cloud's head onto his shoulder and pushed his blonde hair out of his face, saying,

"Cloud, Cloud! Wake up!" Sephiroth kicked harder but made sure that Cloud's head kept above the surface of the water.

Sephiroth drug himself onto the shore as a fresh wave of agony assaulted him from the shrapnel in his back. He shifted Cloud off his chest and laid him on the sand beside himself, before he reached around his back and pulled out the metal. The three large, bloodied, pieces of metal clattered against each other as Sephiroth threw them to the ground, breathing heavily.

He took a deep breath as he looked back to Cloud, even though his vision swam.

"Cloud, wake up, Cloud." He said weakly as he struggled for breath. Sephiroth placed two fingers on Cloud's throat, feeling for a pulse. He could feel one, though extremely faint, but Cloud still wasn't breathing. Sephiroth scooted forward on his knees before bending over, ignoring the white hot pain from his back, and gave him two breaths before checking his breathing again.

He still wasn't breathing, so Sephiroth gave him another, but before he could give the second, Cloud coughed sending water spurting from his mouth as he struggled for air. Sephiroth pulled his hands back in shock but quickly, although gently, lifted the blonde's shoulders to shift him onto his lap. He pushed Clouds wet hair off his forehead, saying,

"Cloud, Cloud, can you hear me? Cloud!" His hands were shaking as he wiped blood off Cloud's eye and forehead that was gushing from a large gash along Cloud's hairline.

His blue eyes fluttered open, but where unfocused and dull. Sephiroth glanced down at the wound in Cloud's chest, which was pumping out blood; the sand beneath Cloud was soaking up his blood like a dry sponge. Sephiroth placed a hand over the wound, trying to stop the bleeding, but it caused Cloud to moan in pain, or try to. The blood in his throat stopped the sound, the majority of it anyway, it came out as a wet gurgle.

Sephiroth's green eyes were misted over as he looked back to Cloud's eyes. They were a duller blue than the normal bright blue but they were focused again. They slowly made their way to look in Sephiroth's eyes with jerky movements. Cloud's throat moved like he was trying to speak, but what came out was horribly wet sounding with the blood,

"I'm sorr-" Blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth, cutting off his last word.

"Shh! Shh, don't try to speak, Cloud." Sephiroth wiped away the blood with his thumb as he continued, "Everything is going to be alright, Cloud. It's all fine." He blinked, which caused tears to fall, though it did clear his vision a little. Cloud turned his head slightly towards him, but stopped with a coughing fit again; more blood drained from his mouth.

"It's okay, don't cr-" Again, the blood cut off the sound, but he coughed again, causing even more blood to pour from his mouth.

Sephiroth was shaking badly as he wiped the blood off his forehead again; Cloud's eyes were becoming duller as they became unfocused again. More tears fell as he said,

"No. No, you can't die, not now!" his voice was quiet as he spoke, "You can't leave me, I don't even know who I am!" Cloud's blue eyes twitched like he was trying to look over at him, but they unfocused as they looked upwards, looking to the sky. Sephiroth couldn't see him, but Zack was there, reaching out to Cloud, smiling, saying,

"It's alright, Cloud, you won't be in pain any longer." Cloud slowly raised his right arm as his body began to glow. Sephiroth sat back just enough to look in the sky, but could see nothing.

Cloud grasped Zack's leather-clad hand as he began to elevate slightly.

"No, god, please no!" Sephiroth cried out, voice cracking, but Cloud turned into mist of light and ascended back into the Life Stream. Sephiroth gasped for his breaths as his head spun; he crumpled onto the sand. He wheezed; his fists clenched as his chest tightened. His hearing was messed up again, but this time, he wasn't underwater, though it sounded like it.

Sephiroth screamed in agony as his world collapsed into darkness.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey, Y'all! I'm back with a new chapter for ya! I won't ramble on, so please enjoy!**

Images flashed across his mind in searing, white hot pain. Pictures. Memories. Memories from when he worked for Shinra, from when he was a SOLIDER. He could remember the pain from the betrayal he felt when he found out about his mother, his true mother.

His eyes flicked open; afterimages were still burned into his vision. As another wave of pain racked through his body, he curled in on himself, screaming in anguish. The combination of his pain from the memories and the agony from losing Cloud was unbearable.

Sephiroth laid there, for quite some time before he had gained enough strength to sit up. He stared at the bloodied sand before him, but no more tears came. His tears were completely dried up, no more could come; the only thing he felt now was a bottomless emptiness and rage. The mounting rage against Shinra covered the emptiness a bit.

He slowly drew himself off the ground, the pain from the wounds in his back were already lessening as he worked out what he had to do. He had to get Cloud back, and then he would utterly destroy Shinra.

"_Gone_? What do you mean _gone_?" Tifa asked as she backed away from Sephiroth. They were standing in the hallway upstairs, over _Seventh Heaven_.

"He died in the train crash." The lie came easily, and he was sick of the stupidity of this girl.

"What do you, I mean, how, no…" she mumbled to herself as Vincent walked over to Sephiroth and said,

"I know that look, what are you planning on doing?" Sephiroth looked up at him.

"I'm going in after him."

"You can't just enter the Life Stream, you have to be dead to do that, and besides, we don't even know if one maintains their forms or thoughts in the Life Stream. Cloud may be there, but he might not even be himself anymore; it's too reckless for you to go in there for someone who may not even be himself anymore."

"Well, I can. I've regained some -_interesting_- memories that seem to tell me that I can maintain my form there and come back out again. I can save him." Vincent had a strange look on his face, but he didn't say anything about it, merely crossed his arms thoughtfully. "Are you coming with me?" Vincent nodded slowly, even as Tifa leaned against the wall, trying to wrap her head around Cloud's death.

"There's a cave to the east of town that has a Life Stream River running through it. That's where we're going."

"How do you know?" Another curious look from Vincent. Sephiroth smirked,

"Like I said, _interesting_ memories." As Sephiroth turned away, Vincent's eyebrows furrowed in worry, he didn't like where Sephiroth was heading mentally. He didn't know what memories had returned, but it was definitely more than enough for him to start going down his old path, and that was worrisome. As long as Sephiroth only wanted to get Cloud back and not destroy the planet, Vincent wouldn't stop him.

Later that day, Sephiroth and Vincent left _Seventh Heaven_ and headed to the cave which Sephiroth had been talking about. The cave entrance itself had been fairly small, if one wasn't looking for the cave, they probably wouldn't see it; it took a pretty good twist to fit through the entrance.

They both turned on their flashlights to illuminate the pitch black world they had just entered. Sephiroth was easily able to lead them to the River with relatively few confusing twists and turns.

While they had been traveling to the cave in the first place, they had talked about what would actually happen. Sephiroth had said that it may take a while for him to find Cloud and to be able to pull him out, as well as he told Vincent several of the things that could go wrong while he was in there, which all ended with both Sephiroth and Cloud permanently dead.

They arrived at the River, which was miles underground, a long while later. Sephiroth's green eyes lit up as he walked forward, but Vincent's were dark with uncertainty.

"Are you sure about this?" Vincent asked from where he stood on the bank. Sephiroth took a step into the Life Stream as a response, eyes bright with anticipation.

His body began to glow as he took more steps, going deeper into the Stream. As the River flowed over the top of his head, his body dispersed, becoming a part of it.

Sephiroth's mind hurtled through white space as he concentrated, listening and feeling for Cloud; he could feel the presence of others, other people who have died recently. He could feel a twinge of pain in the back of his mind, but ignored it, flying deeper into the Life Stream.

Vincent was sitting on the bank; one knee pulled up to rest his elbow on, the other was stretched out before him. He dug into his pocket, extracting his cell phone and flipped it open to check the time. It had already been two hours; red eye's flashed again in a mixture of emotions.

He sighed as he closed the phone and shoved it back into his pocket. There was nothing he could do except wait.

Sephiroth could feel Cloud's presence; he knew that he was getting close. Images of the dead who reached out and touched him flashed through his mind. He recognized most of them from the train, which meant that he was in the right location. He pushed past the essences of the dead passengers, burrowing deeper, trying to find Cloud, much like he had done while in the wreck.

The pain in the back of his mind burned intensely as his memories that he had recently recovered slowly began to get fuzzy. The fuzziness went mostly unnoticed by Sephiroth, who attributed it to the strain he was putting on his body by going into the Life Stream.

He continued to push past essences, slowly forgetting the memories completely. He couldn't remember anything about Shinra, but he didn't care because he didn't know to care. He could still remember everything from before he remembered Shinra, but they began to get fuzzy as well, slower though.

Sephiroth could feel Cloud in front of him, so he reached out and grabbed him, causing his essence to solidify a little, making an outline of Cloud's body. He kept a tight grip around Cloud's upper arm as he pushed back through the bodies.

To get out of the Life Stream, he would need to make it back to the exact point at which he entered. If he surfaced anywhere that wasn't that location, he would die and Cloud wouldn't come back.

Vincent's head jerked up at the sudden change in the River. Instead of the calmly flowing pseudo-water, it began to churn a little bit; the River's color was also different, it used to be a mixture of light blues and greens, now it was predominantly green.

Sephiroth had told him that that would happen when he reached Cloud and began coming back. Vincent stood and strode over to the edge off the River. Red eyes watched the water carefully even though Vincent stood absolutely still, frozen like a statue.

Sephiroth strained, trying to return to his entrance, but the fuzzier his memories became, the less he seemed to care about returning. Where was he again? Oh, that's right, he remembered. That memory became clearer, but immediately began hazing over again. What was he doing? Saving Cloud, that's right. The process repeated itself.

He kept his mind racing, trying to keep his memories from fading away as he franticly looked for the entrance. So franticly that he didn't notice the essences that were gaining a more absolute form, following him.

There it was! He could see out of the Life Stream, as if looking up at the world while submerged in water. A tall form clothed in red could just barely be seen; Vincent. That was when he noticed the forms behind himself.

They reached out, with hazy hands, and grabbed at him, his clothes, his hair, anything they could reach, dragging him back. Sephiroth wrapped his arm around Cloud's chest, strengthening his grasp on him, before kicking out against the pulling hands.

The hands lost their holds, allowing Sephiroth to shoot forward, reaching for the surface. Just as his hand broke the surface, he felt hands grab hold of his ankles. Something about being half in and out of the Life Stream while being pulled into it caused too much strain on his body, causing him to black out.

A hand shot out of the now writhing water, also tinted red at this point, which Vincent lunged for. He had a strong grasp on it as he began to pull, but there was strong resistance, almost like a tug of war type of resistance. He grasped just above the elbow as well, pulling harder.

Slowly, the upper arm began emerging as Vincent gained the advantage. Vincent is a strong man and he was only able to make slow, although steady, progress, whatever the resistance was, it was immense.

Minutes later, when Sephiroth's head and chest were out of the River, it was clear that he was unconscious, just from the way his head hung, but the top of Cloud's head was visible, held tight to Sephiroth's chest.

Not that Vincent had ever done so, but he concluded that pulling the two men from the River was rather akin to birthing a calf. He had an extremely tight grasp and was pulling for all he was worth, even on the steep bank.

The rest of their bodies eventually became visible, but what Vincent found interesting, was once their legs and feet became so. What appeared to be hands were grabbing Sephiroth's legs, pulling desperately; that what was causing the resistance.

With a final _swish_, the hands released and dissolved back into the River, at the sudden resistance change, Vincent almost toppled backward, but caught himself and yanked the two comatose bodies away from the Life Stream.

Once they were a safe distance away, Vincent stopped and flopped onto the ground, the tug of war had used up a lot of energy. While Vincent recovered quickly, he had a moment to think about a few things. The 'River' didn't actually contain water, so both Cloud and Sephiroth where dry, the River had returned to its blue and green, calm state. Sephiroth seemed unconscious, but his grip on Cloud was still strong.

Cloud's motionless form was draped over Sephiroth's equally still one as Vincent pushed up and moved over to them, feeling their necks. They both had a good, strong pulse and both were breathing, but neither was conscious.

Suddenly, Cloud jerked up with a string coughs that were a mixture of sputtering and hacking. His blue eyes darted around, clearly startled and confused.

"Cloud." Vincent said quietly as he laid a hand on the smaller man's shoulder. Shocking blue eyes met deep red as Cloud asked,

"What, what happened? Where are we?" Just then, he realized that there was something, rather someone, beneath him, "What happened to Sephiroth?"

"You died." Cloud froze, the only thing that didn't was his eyes, which slowly rolled back to Vincent, asking,

"What?"

"You died in a train crash; Sephiroth entered the Life Stream to pull you out." Blue eyes pulsated with different emotions, ranging from fear to hostility.

"He could have killed himself doing that!" The words weren't all angry, they were laced with concern. "How did he even know it would work?" Vincent's eyes flicked to his lower right, but returned to Cloud immediately,

"He said that he had regained some, _'_interesting_ memories'_. That's how he knew or at least figured he could pull you out." Cloud's eyes were without a doubt frightened now, there was no hiding that.

"Did he say anything about the memories?" Vincent shook his head, saying,

"No, he just said that he should be able to bring you back to life." Cloud looked back down at Sephiroth's face, it was peaceful, which made Cloud's heart ache, longing to reach out and touch his cheek, but he restrained himself.

Cloud gently pushed himself up and off of Sephiroth, but still sat closely enough that his hip touched Sephiroth's side. The sudden weight difference caused Sephiroth to stir slightly, before his eyes slowly fluttered open; exhausted.

Cloud noticed immediately, so he leaned slightly forward and asked,

"Sephiroth, are you okay?" Green eyes flew open, all traces of weary gone instantly as they flicked to sky blue ones. He quickly sat up and grasped the back of Cloud's neck, pulling him in for a deep but gentle kiss, which made Cloud's cheeks immediately flush red.

Sephiroth pulled back a moment later to rest his forehead against Cloud's, trying to calm his heart beat and breathing. He remembered something a few seconds later, which caused him to jerk back and franticly look at Cloud's chest, laying a hand where his wound had been, saying,

"Is it still there? Are you okay? How are you feeling?" Cloud placed his own hand over the hand on his chest, saying,

"No, it's gone. I'm fine, but why were you unconscious?" Sephiroth slowly shook his head as he gripped the thin material of Cloud's shirt, saying,

"I can't remember. The last thing I do remember was the crash and you wounds. Anything after when you went back into the Life Stream is black, I've got no idea how we even got here." Vincent decided that it was time to made his presence know to the larger man, saying,

"You don't remember telling Tifa and I that Cloud was dead, or telling me how we would be able to get Cloud back?"After a startled look in his green eyes from Vincent's 'sudden' appearance, Sephiroth clearly thought about that for several moments, but ended up shaking his head, saying,

"No." Vincent thought that that was strange, but the man did just walk into the Life Stream and then grab a dead man and pull them both back out. He was just going to have to accept that answer; he truly seemed to have forgotten the memories again.


	9. Chapter 9

By the time that they had made it back to _Seventh Heaven_, it was well past sunset. During the trip back, Sephiroth kept getting headaches, which got continuously worse.

Just as they stepped onto the stairs of the restaurant, another headache hit Sephiroth. His eyes clenched closed and he grabbed his head in both hands, moaning at the stabbing pain in his skull. He swayed in place and would've fallen to his knees if Cloud hadn't caught him.

After several moments, Sephiroth recovered and straightened up, releasing Cloud, who said,

"You alright?" Sephiroth nodded, quietly responding,

"Yeah, that one was even worse." His breathing was heavier than normal as he slowly began to regain his breath. Cloud grasped Sephiroth's right hand in both of his own, comforting him. Sephiroth gave him a reassuring squeeze before following Vincent into the building, who watched the ordeal thoughtfully.

"Cloud!" Tifa screamed as she ran over from behind the counter and caught him in a tight bear-hug. Cloud let go of Sephiroth's hand with his right, keeping his left in place though, and patted Tifa's back comfortingly.

"It's okay." As she backed off him, she shook with restrained emotions; she looked him up and down, as if looking for a flaw that she could argue against. Cloud shifted uncomfortably, moving slightly closer to Sephiroth's side, saying, "Can you stop, please? It's really me." Something suddenly burned in the back of Clouds throat, so he tried to clear it by coughing. It wasn't a racking cough, but it sounded a little wet; he thought he tasted iron, but swallowed it away.

He could feel Sephiroth's hand tighten in his, a question, so Cloud looked up at his face, concern was plain. Cloud gave him a tiny smile, which was really just a tug at the corner of his mouth. Sephiroth didn't look convinced, but he didn't push the subject.

After Tifa finally stopped asking him questions, he went up to his office with Sephiroth, who sat on a chair that was in front of his desk. He hadn't said anything more about the cough, but Cloud was starting to feel even worse as time slowly went by; and Sephiroth could tell.

His head was pounding, but he was trying his best to keep his face as neutral as possible as to not alarm Sephy. The burning was back, but he didn't want to cough.

Cloud sat in his chair behind the desk, but his vision blurred as he sat down. Sephiroth finally said something about it,

"Cloud, are you alright?" Cloud couldn't answer right away, but a few seconds later, his voice came back,

"Yeah, just feeling a bit strange is all."

"You know, I don't believe that for a second." Cloud looked over at him, but his image was still blurry.

"I'm fine, just a little off; I'm sure getting pulled from the Life Stream has that side effect." Sephiroth slowly shook his head,

"No, not if everything went fine it doesn't." Cloud looked up again, vision slightly clearer,

"Well what about you, you don't seem perfectly fine either."

"True, but my headaches just seem to be my memories coming back."

"Really? How much is coming back?" Sephiroth shrugged as he replied,

"Not much, just little clips at a time, like a picture more than a sequence in time." Just as Cloud had opened his mouth to respond, the burning in his throat intensified greatly, cutting his words off. He involuntary hacked, covering his mouth with his hands; he felt a warm fluid seep on his hands.

When he pulled his hands away from his mouth, the crimson liquid was dripping through his fingers. Sephiroth jumped up and ran around the side of the desk and took Clouds hands in his own, fear in his wide, bright green eyes,

"What's happening?" Cloud just slowly shook his head, staring at the dark fluid on his hands before he said with a rough voice,

"I don't know." He started coughing again, this time bringing on a headache that throbbed against the back of his eyes. Cloud was doubled over in his chair; the top of his head was pressed into the crook of Sephiroth's neck, still coughing, unable to stop doing so. The blood wouldn't stop coming, it continued coming up with his hackings.

Sephiroth had his arms wrapped around Clouds shoulders, unable to do anything to help him, so he just held him until he stopped coughing. It felt like forever though, even though it was really only about two minutes until his body quit racking but that didn't mean that his headache went away or even lessened.

Cloud just took a moment to breath, or rather pant for his breath seeing how he hadn't breathed normally for a couple minutes. He swallowed away some of the blood that was still in his mouth before he mumbled into Sephiroth's neck,

"I'm getting blood on your jacket." Sephiroth gave a tiny chuckle, more of just blowing more air through his nose while his stomach contracted, before muttering back,

"That truly is the least of our worries right now." Sephiroth helped him up and too Cloud's room to have him lie down. Cloud was extremely weak and could hardly stand let alone walk, so really Sephiroth just carried him there more than anything else.

"Wait here a moment, I'll go get a cloth." Sephiroth said quietly, hand on Cloud's left shoulder. Cloud's eyes were shut, but he nodded, acknowledging him. Sephiroth was suddenly hesitant to even leave more the short moment that it would take for him to get a cloth, but pushed up onto his feet and hurried down stairs.

The restaurant had been closed for the night for quite some time but Tifa was still cleaning table tops, or at least still had the rag in her hands, which were folded across her chest. Vincent was standing in front of her and they were speaking in quiet voices, but Vince looked up when Sephiroth walked down the stairs. His red gaze immediately fell upon the blood over Sephiroth's heart.

"Sephiroth?" Vince asked, red eyes asking for an answer to the obvious question. Tifa looked up and noticed the blood as well just before Sephiroth responded,

"It's not mine, something is wrong with Cloud. He's quite sick; he coughing up blood." Vincent's eyes narrowed as Tifa's grew, she stumbled over her words as she spoke,

"What, what does- what does that mean?" Sephiroth looked into her brown eyes, his own filled with worry and sadness, saying,

"I don't know, but I think something may have gone wrong while we were in the Life Stream." Just as he finished speaking, another head ache came suddenly, which had him doubled over at the skull splitting pain. He collapsed against the wall as his legs gave out; he withheld a groan of pain as an image flashed through his mind.

The picture was of a man with long, greasy brown hair and crooked glasses sitting on his hawk-like nose. He was standing over a pregnant, very pregnant, woman. He couldn't see her face, it was blurred away. The man was injecting the woman with something and her head was thrown back in a frozen and silent scream of agony.

"-roth! Sephiroth!" Vincent Valentine was kneeling beside him where he laid on his back which was absorbing the coolness of the tile floor. Sephiroth's vision was spotty and blurred, but within a moment, he had blinked it way and was trying to sit up, but the red eyed man's hand on his shoulder stopped him, saying,

"What happened?" Sephiroth pinched his eyes closed, the light overhead was causing his head to throb even worse, saying,

"It was just another headache." If he had had his eyes open, he would've seen Vincent's eyebrow raise,

"A headache so bad that it causes you to pass out like that?" Sephiroth grit his teeth before replying,

"Yes, and they're getting even worse. Cloud! How long was I unconscious, Cloud still needs my help!" Vince didn't move his hand at all even when Sephiroth pushed against it again, saying,

"A few minutes, Tifa is with him now, it's alright." Sephiroth's head clunked against the tile floor when he dropped it with a half-relieved sigh.

"Let me up, Vincent." Sephiroth said a few moments later, pushing against his hand again. Vince let him get up, putting a hand on his shoulder to steady him once he was upright and swaying in place. He helped Sephiroth up stairs and to Cloud's bedroom.

Tifa was sitting on the edge of Cloud's bed, dabbing his forehead with a wet cloth. A small bucket of water was sitting on the floor beside them, it was already hazy read from Cloud's blood. Cloud looked like he was asleep; but he didn't look peaceful, his face looked pained.

She looked up at the two men who just entered the room and said, mostly Vince,

"He's not doing good." Sephiroth carefully made his way over to the other side of the bed and sat down, taking Clouds' right hand in his own; Cloud opened his eyes and look at him. His eyes are dull and tired looking even though he tries to give Sephy a reassuring smile.

Vincent asked Tifa to talk to him in the hall, no doubt to talk about Cloud's condition. Cloud started coughing again but it was weak; Cloud was exhausted. Sephy just rubbed tiny circles in the back on Cloud's hand with his thumbs, holding back his emotions.

Sephiroth held Cloud's hand up to his forehead, eyes clenched closed. He whispered,

"I can't lose you, not again." Suddenly, another headache over came him and it immediately made him pass out. He slumped forward, head next to Cloud's shoulder. Cloud was still conscious enough to nudge Sephy and weakly ask,

"Sephiroth?" Then the darkness overcame him as well.


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry, guys! This week has been insanely crazy for me and I'm behind on the story. Really sorry! So, I don't have a new chapter for you this week but I PROMISE that I will next Thursday! If it helps, you can read another one of my other stories. I have stories for: Zombieland, Avengers, and Hellsing. Please forgive me for not having another chapter for this story!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey, guys! As promised here's the chapter! This will be the last chapter in the Fic. Sorry if this seems like an abrupt way to and the story, but only while I was writing it did I realize that it would be that last. I want to thank all of you who have read my Fic and I love all of you! *throws cookies around***

By morning, Cloud's condition had rapidly declined and he was now in a coma and completely unresponsive. He had a fever of 106˚ and blood wouldn't stop draining from his mouth. No matter what they tried, they couldn't get his fever down or stop the blood flow.

Sephiroth had a constant, droning headache now that would periodically spike and make him pass out. The images were turning into short clips of time, whether that be a few words or an action, instead of a still picture.

Reno called later that morning, but Vincent answered the phone seeing how Cloud couldn't.

"Yo, buddy, where you at? Thought you said you was coming right over?" Reno's loud voice drilled into Vincent's ear canal.

"This is Vincent, Cloud is in a coma." Vincent bluntly replied. There was a pause on the line, but Reno replied a moment later,

"Oh, what happened, yo?"

"Cloud died in a train crash. Sephiroth went into the Life Stream and was able to pull him out, but now the both of them are sick." Vince looked over at Sephiroth who was currently passed out against the head board beside, blood dripping from his nose, where the comatose Cloud laid. Now Sephiroth was bleeding as well, his condition was worsening.

"Wait, what? Sephiroth?! I thought he was dead, yo?! Why would he save Cloud?!" Reno stumbled over his words, seemingly unable to get them out fast enough.

"Reno. Shut up." Vince commanded, and Reno eventually complied, waiting for an explanation, "It's a long story, just accept the fact that Sephiroth is on our side at the moment. Now, what were you wanting to talk to Cloud about?"

"Oh, that, yeah, there's this kid over here who wanted to give something to him, that's why he was coming over here in the first place, yo. I was wondering where he was because he had said that he was coming straight over."

"Cloud is in no condition to be traveling anywhere now, is it possible for you to come here with the boy?" There was a pause over the line, but Vince heard a faint,

"Yo, can I just take you to him?" Reno was obviously addressing the boy and then after a moment, said to Vince, "Yup, we should be there before nightfall, is that okay?"

"That's fine."

The sun was low on the horizon, partially hidden already when Reno burst through the front doors. Tifa was working in the restaurant at the time, so she waved a hand at him, calling him over to her. Vincent had already filled her in on the situation prior to Reno's arrival, so she asked when she noticed that he was alone,

"Where's the boy?" Reno had a bewildered expression on his face as he rubbed the back of his neck, saying,

"I don't know, yo, he disappeared when we arrived in town; I had turned my back on him for a sec, but when I turned back around, he was gone."

"He just up and left? Well, did he ever give you whatever it was that he wanted to give to Cloud?" Reno just shook his head as he plopped into a bar stool in front of Tifa.

"Well, what does this all mean? Was it a setup from the start? Was someone trying to kill Cloud? Maybe Sephiroth was the target and whoever it was knew that Sephiroth and Cloud wouldn't leave each other's sides." Reno held his hands up, saying,

"Whoa, sister! Don't be askin' me all these questions that I don't know the answers to, yo."

"Reno." Vincent called from the top of the stairs.

"Yo!" Reno called to Vincent and then said to Tifa, "See ya later, yo." With that, he bound up the stairs, back to his normal, energetic self. "Heya, Vincy!" Reno said once he reached Vincent. Said man merely rolled his eyes and then led the way to Cloud's room.

When they arrived, Sephiroth was awake though wiping blood from his eyes; the bleeding has progressed to his eyes as well, they come like tears from around his eyes. Reno handled the situation surprisingly well when he said,

"Well, you look like shit, yo." Sephiroth gave a tired, though amused huff before saying,

"Reno, I presume?"

"The one and only, yo!" Reno said proudly as he puffed out his chest. Sephiroth glanced behind the red-head, looking for the boy, when it was apparent that he wasn't there, Sephy raised an eyebrow, not bothering to put his question into words.

"The boy ran off and no, we still don't know what he had wanted to give Cloud." Vincent said.

"You let him get away?!" Sephiroth hissed, rising from the bed to move toward Reno aggressively, but failed majorly when his headache spiked and rendered him an unconscious heap on the floor. It was obvious from Reno's expression that he had been legitimately frightened when Sephiroth had moved for him, but now that he was no longer a threat, he sniffled as he rubbed his pointer finger across the bottom of his nose, saying,

"Ha, I coulda taken him!" Vincent scoffed as he pushed Reno out of his way, saying,

"Help me get him onto the bed."

Once Sephiroth was maneuvered onto the bed and Vincent had wiped the blood off both Cloud and Sephiroth's faces, Vince said,

"Both of their conditions are rapidly declining. If they continue to fall at this rate, I don't think they will live through the night." Reno grimaced at that, asking,

"There's nothing we can do for them?" Vince shook his head. "Damn." Cloud was Vincent's best friend, if there was anything he could do to help him, he would be doing it, but there was simply nothing that he could do.

Reno had claimed a chair in the corner of the room and was currently slumped in it, holding his goggles in his lap. He turned them around in his hands, looking over them in a nervous habit of his.

The room felt heavy, there's no other way to describe it than like death, and smelled heavily of blood. Both men were still bleeding profusely and Sephiroth was now also bleeding from the mouth.

A few minutes later, Sephiroth stirred, opening his eyes to stare at the ceiling. When he remembered what happened, he jerked upright but doubled over at the intense, white-hot pain that shot through his head.

Once the pain dulled, he licked his lips and swallowed heavily, trying to get rid of the metallic taste in his mouth. He looked up at Vince, eyes asking the question that his lips didn't.

"Not long, less than ten minutes; here." Vince handed him a cloth which Sephiroth then used it to wipe blood from his eyes.

"Thanks." Sephiroth said to Vincent after he shifted look check on Cloud.

"So," Reno said, trying to strike up a conversation, 'Why are you here?"

"I woke up with amnesia and gravely injured. My friends came and found me and brought me back here." Reno looked confused and opened his mouth to say something but Vincent leveled him with a glare that told him to _shut the hell up before I cut out your tongue_. Reno's mouth snapped shut and just nodded in agreement to Sephiroth, not asking anymore questions.

After the restaurant closed downstairs, Tifa came up and joined the men, nothing to do than wait and see what happens with the two's conditions. They sat in relative silence until around midnight when Cloud began to stir, coming out of his coma.

Sephiroth grasped his hand tightly and his eyes began to glaze over when he felt a tiny pressure back. Cloud's dim eyes looked slowly around at everyone before he asked, voice hoarse,

"What happened?" Vincent and Sephiroth took turns telling him everything that had happened, but near the end of the explanation, the pain in Sephiroth's mind began to intensify. Even when it pasted its usual threshold of when it would knock him out, he never went under.

Sephiroth was writhing around on the floor as Reno asked, voice an octave higher than normal,

"I thought they knock him out?" Vincent and Tifa just stood still, not able to do anything as Vince said,

"They usually do." Cloud was still awake at this point but his voice had stopped working sometime ago and he was delirious. Even through his delirium, Cloud managed to scoot over to the side of the bed and reach down to Sephiroth who had stilled, though it was clear that the pain was even more intense than before.

Their hands clenched together tightly even as Cloud's own features scrunched against the pain that racked through his body. Their breaths are raspy and wet as blood poured freely from the both of them.

Reno stood in the corner, rolling his goggles around in his hands, frozen in his place. Tifa and Vincent tried everything they could think of to ease the two's pain, but nothing seemed to have any effect whatsoever.

It wasn't long before both bodies stilled, muscles unclenching, though their hands stayed firmly in each other's grasp. The tears that had been threatening to come in Tifa's eyes finally spilled over as both Cloud and Sephiroth levitated and dispersed into the Life Stream together.

Tifa fell to her knees, hands over her mouth as she silently sobbed. Vincent put a hand on her shoulder with a clenched jaw and bright red eyes. Reno stayed silent, not wanting to interfere.

If only one of them had looked up and through the window, they would have seen a boy standing on the rooftop of the building across the way, looking into the room. He wasn't standing alone though, there was a man of average height with long, brown, greasy hair and wire rimmed spectacles that sat low on his hawk like nose. He had a horrendous smile on his nasty features as he turned away and disappeared with the boy into the gloomy night.


End file.
